


The Impact of the Clue Hunt

by google_teef



Category: The 39 Clues - Various Authors
Genre: Amy doesnt really get it but wants to help, Canon Compliant, Dan Cahill is asexual, Dan is super depressed, Slow To Update, a lil bit of evamy? but like in the background, only rated teen bc dan might get suicidal, short chapters bc im lazy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-22 04:48:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14301144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/google_teef/pseuds/google_teef
Summary: Dan was a little bit less than okay when he and his sister returned from the clue hunt. Everything was so completely different- how could he sit in class when just weeks ago he had been tracking Lucian clues through Russia? Being chased by crocodiles in the Nile? It isn't like he can complain to his friends about it- they've lived in Massachusetts their whole lives. And Amy seems to be doing relatively well, so he doesn't want to worry her with all his bullshit. But the nightmares aren't going away and his days seem to all blur together- will he ever be able to return to regular life?





	The Impact of the Clue Hunt

CPT. 1  
The sky was clear, and Dan Cahill was at the beach. He could feel the sand, hot underneath his bare feet. The sun shined on his head, warming his hair until it was hot to the touch. When he closed his eyes, he could feel happiness radiating from this place. Families with little children, playing in cool water, laughing together. He looked over at his sister, who was smiling bigger than he’d ever seen her smile.   
All of a sudden, the air turned cold. He shivered as goosebumps rose on his previously hot skin. Amy was gone. The laughter that had filled the air was replaced with the now menacing sound of rushing water. His eyes darted to the ocean, whose waters were now dark and choppy. Dan ran away from the water as fast as he could, his insides churning with fear, but the water surged up the beach too quickly. He felt it licking at his ankles, then his knees, and then he was submerged completely.  
Suddenly, shaking him out of a waterlogged daze, a hand desperately shot up from the depths. A rush of bubbles flew up towards Dan’s frantically kicking feet. He looked down through the murk just as the familiar hand began to disappear downwards into the dark water. Lester. Dan was consumed with a concoction of panic and guilt so extreme, it sprang him to action before he even had a chance to think. He dove for the hand, his arms pushing him down, down, down, because he had to save Lester, he had to. But the hand was being pulled under faster than Dan could swim, and his lungs were burning. Letting out what little breath he’d had left in a pained, guttural sob that sent bubbles rising to the surface, he turned around and began to swim up. Slowly, at first, his inability to save Lester once again weighing him down, but as his lungs threatened to burst, he began to move faster and faster, thrashing his legs violently as he swam upwards. The grey ocean above him seemed to stretch, pulling the surface farther and farther from his flailing arms. Without warning, something strong grabbed his ankle tightly, jolting him so hard he inhaled what felt like gallons of saltwater. The hand began to drag him downwards, and Dan had one last thought, lungs on fire, before blacking out. I deserve this.  
He woke with a start. His sheets were dampened with a clammy sweat that had formed throughout Dan’s twenty-third restless night so far. Dan hadn’t had a peaceful night’s sleep since he, his sister Amy, and his au pair Nellie had found the 39 clues last month. There were different nightmares, of course. Dreams with Irina, falling into the fire and being consumed by the flames once more. Ones where Isabel or Bae kidnapped him and tortured the serum formula out of him. Or ones like tonight’s, with Lester…  
Upon the thought of Lester, Dan was so overcome with emotion that he ripped the covers off his body and jumped out of bed. He walked out into the hallway and down the staircase. His fingers anxiously tapped on the elaborately carved handrails as he went down, quelling the guilt rising up in his throat, though only a little. He still wasn’t quite used to living in Grace’s house. It was so much bigger than their apartment in Boston, and it felt so empty without Grace in it. Although the rebuilt version’s meticulous attention to the house’s original details made it familiar in shape, it didn’t quite feel the same. The lingering smells of his grandmother were gone, replaced by a strange sense that everything was wrong, like a warped dream version of the mansion. No one else seemed to be bothered by it, though.  
Dan walked into the kitchen, sure to step quietly as not to wake the sleeping cat perched precariously on the counter, his legs dangling off the edge. He turned on the coffee machine. Coffee supposedly stunted your growth, and Dan’s own personal opinion was that it tasted like butt, but he needed the extra caffeine to keep him up throughout the day, since he could never really force himself to go back to sleep after the nightmares he had. He checked the clock. 5:48. Nice, he had made it pretty long this time. He wouldn’t have to wait as long for Amy to get up.   
Dan Cahill’s life had been permanently changed by the clue hunt. He knew that their family’s difficult relationship with itself and others would eventually catch back up to them, but even before then, not a minute went by where the clues weren’t on his mind. The Dan that had left Massachusetts this summer after Grace’s funeral hadn’t come back. He saw the world completely differently now.   
He heard footsteps shuffling about upstairs. Amy was awake. He snuck into the closet, where he put his clothes every night so Amy wouldn’t see him tiptoeing back up from the kitchen. He knew that she’d be worried. He didn’t want her worrying about him. She’d give him that look- the annoying scrunchy one- so chock full of pity and condescending, it made him want to puke. He was only three years younger than her, but sometimes she acted like he was still four years old. As he heard the soft tap of socked feet coming down the carpeted stairs, Dan hastily pulled on his Jeans and pushed his head through the hole of his shirt.  
“Morning!” He said to his sister, popping out from the closet. Amy smiled.   
“Since when are you a morning person? You’ve been up before me almost every day this year,” she replied. Dan shrugged.  
“I guess I’m just really passionate about learning,” he said, pumping his fist in the air with exaggerated excitement. “School rocks!” Amy rolled her eyes.   
“Whatever. Just eat your breakfast and get to the bus on time.” Dan let out a quiet sigh of relief as he delved into the pantry to grab a box of cereal. That had been close. If Amy found out he hadn’t been sleeping…  
He poured the cereal into a bowl and reached into the refrigerator to get some milk. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Amy move over towards the coffee maker.   
“Dan? You drink coffee?” she asked incredulously. Oops. Dan cursed under his breath for doing such a poor job of hiding it. He was really bad at this whole “lying to his sister” thing.   
“Um, yeah. I’m in seventh grade, Amy. I can do what I want.” Dan said. He winced. That might’ve been a bit too harsh. Amy held up her hands in surrender.  
“Hey, I wasn’t judging you. Calm down.” she told him. “Come on. The bus is gonna get here any minute.”   
Dan shoved a spoonful of cereal in his mouth and grabbed his backpack. It was October, so not quite cold enough for a jacket yet, but Amy was always trying to get him to at least wear a sweater. You’ll get hypothermia, she’d said. Dan had scoffed. They had survived the clue hunt, hadn’t they?   
He seriously doubted he could be bested by some chilly winds.  
The school bus was a lot different now that they lived in Grace’s neighborhood. When they had had their little apartment in Boston, all the kids had been relatively poor. But now all the kids in the houses around them were loaded. They had fancy backpacks and always had the newest iPhone. Lots of the kids around here didn’t even go to Dan’s school, but the fancy private schools littered all over Attleboro, so they didn’t ride the bus at all. It always weirded Dan out that he was actually one of the rich kids now- he’d always had to negotiate his way to every penny, and now he had as much money as he could find need for.  
The school bus pulled up at one of the more reasonably sized houses- reasonable being relative, it was still big enough to comfortably fit a family of ten. Onto the bus scampered a girl in Dan’s grade. She was short, blonde, and freckled and had introduced herself to Dan as Sofia-with-an-f. Dan had thought this was stupid at the time, but had then been introduced to the three other Sophias in his grade and had decided it made sense. Sofia-with-an-f had sat next to Dan on the bus every day since the start of the school year. They weren’t friends or anything, though. They sat together because neither of them knew anyone else on that bus and neither of them wanted to sit alone. Some days they made small talk, but most days Sofia was listening to some sort of podcast or something, and Dan didn’t care enough to initiate a conversation. Today, however, she didn’t have her phone with her. Dan braced himself for thirty minutes of awkward sort-of talking.   
Sofia turned in her seat to look at him. Dan gulped, suddenly afraid of what kind of question she might ask him. Would she ask where he’d been for the first month of the school year? Why he suddenly rode this bus when last year he had lived in a little apartment in Boston? What had happened to his house when it caught fire?  
“Do you collect baseball cards?” she asked him. Relieved, Dan shrugged. He had collected them before the clue hunt, but had had to sell them for money so they didn’t get stranded in France. Of course, that was before he had known they’d had Madrigal money to spend all along. Dan was briefly annoyed that he had sold the cards in the first place, but then realized that he didn’t really care that much about his collections anymore.   
“Used to.” he responded to Sofia. She looked a little disappointed. Dan quickly tried to recover. “I mean, I do know how to get, like, good ones.” Sofia perked up at this.   
“Really? ‘Cause I’ve been wanting to start a collection for a while,” she told him excitedly, “and I heard that you’re the guy to ask about that kind of stuff.” Dan smiled. This wasn’t actually that bad. He spent the rest of the bus ride talking to Sofia about the intricacies of baseball card trading.   
When the bus pulled up to the school, Dan took a breath before leaving the bus. Maybe, for the first time since the clue hunt ended, he’d have a good day? Hah. He almost laughed out loud at that. He wasn’t sure he’d ever have a good day again.

**Author's Note:**

> So I really doubt anyone will read this but if someone does I wont be updating this for at least a few months bc school.


End file.
